12 
The Coeorado Experiment Station 
fertility. He seems to take exception to the stress laid, by chem¬ 
ists in particular, upon these questions, with which I have no quar¬ 
rel, and it is not my intention, in this place at least, to take any ex¬ 
ceptions to his views. This is in no way my purpose, but simply 
to give such quotations as may faithfully present his views upon 
the question forming the subject of this bulletin. Under the cap¬ 
tion “Symptoms of Deterioration as noted in Soil and Seed,” he 
uses the following language: 
“The history of wheat cropping shows that at first new lands yield 
bounteously in quantity and quality, but in a comparatively few years an 
evident deterioration of the seed produced sets in. The fall in bushelage 
per acre is not more marked or more rapid than the deterioration in 
quality as to plumpness of grain, flour content, hardness, color and other 
characteristics. By almost common consent, many agriculturists, chem¬ 
ists, biologists, millers and farmers have assumed, when such conditions 
of the crop arise after more or less continuous cropping to wheat and 
other cereals, that the lands have ‘deteriorated.’ The symptoms as ob¬ 
served in the slow growth of the crop, the dying out of young plants, the 
blighting, ‘tip-burning,’ ‘sun-scalding’ and discoloration of the young 
plants, the weakness of the straw, the shrivelled seed, the common defic¬ 
iency in proteid content of the grain have all been taken as indicating 
improper food relations.’’ 
“I think I am safe in saying that it has been quite commonly as¬ 
sumed that lost nitrogen, phosphate, lime or other plant food deficiencies 
are to be expected under such cropping conditions. Furthermore, chem¬ 
ists, as they measure availability of plant food, have found that such old 
soils often show more or less change in the available plant food. The 
writer, knowing as he does that a wheat plant can extract essentially all 
of the available material of a particular food element from the soil be¬ 
fore showing noticeable change in its growth relations has always doubted 
that the general conclusions of soil deterioration under such cropping con¬ 
ditions is justifiable; for there are many fertile soils which fail to produce 
normal wheat, and there are some very poor, weak soils which produce 
nice, properly colored milling wheat. These, so-called, deteriorated wheat 
soils produce high yields and quality in other crops.’’ 
It is evident that the deterioration here had in mind includes 
plumpness of the grains, the flour that they will yield, their color 
and hardness. In the quotation given, and also in other portions 
of the bulletin, he plainly questions the correctness of the general 
assumption that there is a relation between the food supply in the 
soil and these conditions, especially that there has been a soil de¬ 
terioration in this respect, or, as it is commonly expressed, in soil 
fertility. The author even goes further and asserts that the appli¬ 
cation of farmyard manure may even produce “disastrous results” 
in the nature of soft, overgrown straw and shrivelled, off-grade, 
grain. His interpretation of this is that it shows that the land 
